Driver Ed Carpenter celebrates winning the pole with a kiss from his wife Heather Carpenter during Pole Day at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Saturday, May 18, 2013. / Matt Detrich / The Star

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The city celebrated its home-grown Indy 500 pole sitter, Ed Carpenter,first at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Saturday and then, Downtown, at the Pacers vs. Knicks game, where he got big cheers.

Late night, Carpenter, who earned his first Indianapolis 500 pole position with a four-lap average of 228.762 mph, attended a small party and arrived at his Indianapolis home at 1 a.m. Sunday, he was back at the race track working by 7 a.m.

“Words cannot describe how grateful we are (for the support) and how blessed we are to be part of this community,” Heather Carpenter said Sunday.

They are active community members, for sure.

The Carpenters have season tickets to Butler University’s basketball games (Ed is a 2003 Butler grad), they regularly attend Pacers games and they’re part of one of the city’s most notable families — Ed’s stepfather, Tony George founded the Indy Racing League that gave him the chance to race an Indy car in the first place.

At the race track Sunday, Heather stopped to chat about what’s been going on around Ed’s pole win.

• It’s more nerve-wracking to watch Indy 500 qualifications than to watch the race itself, she said.

The reason: “They are going out there and push it as hard as possible. During qualifying, he’s not going to lift (his foot off the gas).”

• A proud parental moment, she said, came when Ed was receiving his trophy and their 5-year-old Makenna interrupted, asking him to sign autographs for children she didn’t know.

“My daughter came over and said, ‘Daddy, there are two little kids that want your autograph over there.’ She was watching out for them.”

• When the Carpenters arrived at the Pacers’ game with Heather’s sister, Noelle Younger and her husband, Will, Saturday, the crowd cheered and Gov. Mike Pence stopped to congratulate him. Speedway police gave them a ride to the game.

“We love the Pacers and we love cheering for them.”

• Following the game, the Carpenters stopped by Stuart Reed’s home in Carmel for a celebration until around midnight. Reed is the co-owner of Fuzzy’s Vodka, Carpenter’s sponsor.

“We celebrated with them and headed home and went to bed because it was an early morning today.”

• Ed was at the IMS by 7 a.m. Sunday. The rest of the Carpenters got there around 8:15 a.m.

“He is back to work and preparing. The big prize he wants to win (comes) Sunday.”

Contact Cathy Kightlinger at (317)-444-6067 and follow her on Twitter @ckightlinger.